BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 30. The European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union, has signed a €50 million long-term financing agreement with Ukraine’s state-owned energy company Naftogaz to support urgent natural gas imports and help stabilize the country’s energy system during winter, Trend reports via the EIB.
The financing is aimed at safeguarding heating and energy supplies for households, critical infrastructure and businesses as temperatures across Ukraine plunge and pressure on the energy system intensifies amid continued attacks on energy infrastructure.
The operation builds on the EIB’s earlier €300 million loan to Naftogaz and complements broader EU support, including €127 million in grant funding for gas procurement enabled by the Norwegian government through its contribution to the Ukraine Investment Framework. Together, the measures reinforce a coordinated EU response to Ukraine’s most pressing energy needs.
Alongside the emergency support, Naftogaz has committed to reinvesting an amount equivalent to the EIB financing into renewable energy and decarbonization projects, linking short-term energy security with longer-term green transition goals.
The loan forms part of the EIB’s Ukraine Energy Rescue Plan and is delivered within a coordinated Team Europe approach. It is made possible by the European Commission through the derisking mechanism of the EU’s Ukraine Investment Framework. The financing includes safeguards to prevent the import of Russian gas and requires continued adherence to transparency and good governance standards.
The European Investment Bank is the EU’s long-term lending institution, owned by its Member States. It finances projects aligned with EU policy priorities, including climate action, innovation, security, social infrastructure and cohesion. Active in Ukraine since 2007, the EIB has significantly increased its support since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, providing €4 billion in financing to date. Through its EU for Ukraine (EU4U) initiative and its role in implementing a dedicated window of the Ukraine Facility, the Bank remains a central pillar of the EU’s financial support for Ukraine’s resilience and recovery.
Since the first days of the full-scale war with Russia, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine has been in dialogue with international partners to provide assistance to the Ukrainian energy sector, which is being mercilessly shelled by the enemy.
The Ministry of Energy has a working group to organize humanitarian aid to the energy sector, which collects applications from Ukrainian energy companies regarding their needs, processes them and passes them on to partners who are ready to provide appropriate assistance.
In April 2022, Energy Support Fund for Ukraine was established by the Energy Community. The Fund's donors are individual states, international companies and organizations. The main objective of the Fund is to help energy companies quickly restore damaged or destroyed energy infrastructure as a result of Russian shelling. The Fund is used to purchase equipment that cannot be provided by international partners as humanitarian aid. Assistance is provided in the form of equipment purchased by the independent procurement agent UTA-SWECO based on the results of tender procedures.
Under the patronage of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, with the support of the European Commission and EISMEA, the Enterprise Europe Network in cooperation with the EU Clusters is also searching for partners in the electricity sector on the Electric Energy matchmaking Forum platform.